02 Why Paul Didn’t Visit Corinth and What That Means for Us (2 Corinthians 1:1-2:4)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today, we'll be studying 2 Corinthians 1, verse 12, through chapter 2, verse 4. This is the second talk in my series on 2 Corinthians. Thanks for making Wednesday in the Word part of your day. I'm really glad you're listening. Well, last week we saw that Paul started his letter by describing this mutual concern between himself and the Corinthians. Just to review, Paul founded the church in Corinth during his second missionary journey. He stayed in Corinth about 18 months, which is longer than he stayed most places. After he left, he returned to his home base in Antioch and later moved to Ephesus, from which he launched his third missionary journey. He wrote the letter we call 1 Corinthians from Ephesus, and it's about a year after that that he is writing this letter from Macedonia. In the opening of the letter, Paul described the suffering and the trouble he went through as an apostle of Jesus Christ, but he saw those troubles as being of benefit to the Corinthians in two ways. First, it's how they learn the gospel. Just as people hated Jesus for speaking the truth, so they hate Paul as a representative of Jesus. Whenever Paul preaches the gospel, he expects some people will react badly and he will suffer for it, but he views that as necessary to preach the gospel, and it's of benefit to the Corinthians that he suffer for preaching the gospel because that's how they can learn it. Second, God encouraged Paul in the midst of his sufferings, and then Paul is able to pass that encouragement on to the Corinthians. So he sees both his troubles and the encouragement he receives from God as ending up being for their benefit. For their part, the Corinthians could pray for Paul and his troubles, and then when God delivered Paul, they too would experience joy and gratitude. Now I argued that we need to know three things to understand this letter. The first is that Paul frequently refers to himself in the first person plural. So that when Paul says we, he frequently means I Paul. And we need to know that, and we can often figure that out by looking at who he is contrasting himself with. So in many of these passages we'll see a we and a they or a we and a you, and it's easy to figure out, easier anyway, to figure out who the you or the they is, and therefore who the we is, and quite often he means I, Paul. The second piece of information we need to know is that Paul wrote another letter to the Corinthians after writing 1 Corinthians and before writing this letter. In this letter, the one we're studying now, he is responding to how they responded to the missing letter that came in between. And the third piece of information we need to know is that Paul had a very difficult relationship with this church. Some in the church respect him and accept him and trust him, but others in the church have rejected his authority as an apostle and they don't trust him at all. Starting in verse 12, we're going to begin to see that. We're going to see that not all the Corinthians accepted Paul and accepted this picture of mutual concern that he painted in the first 11 verses. Paul had opponents in Corinth. Some people were suspicious of him, and as we'll see later, they rejected him as an apostle. And at times, Paul's relationship with the Corinthians was contentious and painful. So behind that picture of mutual concern that we saw last week was this an appeal for the Corinthians to see their relationship the way Paul sees it and to be more sympathetic to Paul. Today we're going to start in chapter 1, verse 12, and to understand what's going on in this section, we need some background information. As I mentioned, this is actually the fourth letter that Paul wrote to Corinth. Last week I talked about a lost letter to the Corinthian church, and today we're really going to go into that timeline. When we put all the clues together that we have from Acts and from Paul's letters, the evidence we have suggests that Paul wrote at least four letters to the Corinthians, but only two of them survived. I have a chart that goes over all this information on Wednesdayandtheword.com and it's free. I'll put a link to that in the show notes if you want to download it and have it for reference. But if you don't have it in front of you, that's okay. I'm going to explain it all for you here. As recorded in Acts 18, the first time Paul visited Corinth was on his second missionary journey, and he stayed for about a year and a half and he lived with Priscilla and Aquila and established the church in Corinth. That was his first visit to Corinth and his initial contact. After leaving, he wrote his first letter to Corinth, which is a letter that we don't have. And we know this lost letter existed because in 1 Corinthians, Paul mentions it. This is 1 Corinthians 5, 9. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. That comment tells us Paul wrote a letter prior to the one we call 1 Corinthians, and scholars call this prior letter the lost letter or the lost epistle. So chronologically, it's the first one Paul wrote to the church. Now, why did he write that one? We think he wrote it because word reached him that the Corinthian church was having troubles and he wrote to address those problems. The only clue we have to the contents of that lost letter is what we saw in 1 Corinthians 5 9, where Paul says he told them not to associate with immoral people. In response to that lost letter, the Corinthians wrote a letter back to Paul, and Paul answers in what we call 1 Corinthians. So 1 Corinthians is actually the second letter he wrote to them chronologically. He dictated it to Sosthenes during his time in Ephesus, probably toward the beginning of his third missionary journey, and he is responding to a letter they wrote to him. Now, how do we know this? Well, in 1 Corinthians 7 1, Paul says, Now concerning the matters about which you wrote, and then he spends the rest of the letter answering those questions. And if you read through 1 Corinthians from chapter 7 on, you'll see every now and then he'll say, and now concerning, and we know he's moving on to a new topic and he's answering another question that they wrote to him. The next event in their relationship, the relationship between Paul and the Corinthian church, is a visit that is not recorded in Acts. Timothy had visited Corinth and brought back news that Paul believed he needed to deal with swiftly. Paul made a second but brief visit to Corinth on his way to Macedonia, and that we're going to see in our passage today. He predicted this visit in 1 Corinthians 16. He says this is 16 verses 5 through 8. I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits, but I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. Now, as we'll see in our passage today, even though he wrote that he planned to come via the land route through Macedonia, Paul ended up taking the direct route across the sea, staying briefly, and then going to Macedonia. Paul refers back to this second visit in 2 Corinthians 13 verses 1 and 2. Here he says, This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them. So after this brief second visit, Paul wrote a third letter to the Corinthian church, but this letter did not survive either. We called this letter the severe letter, and Paul mentions it in the passage we're looking at today. This is Second Corinthians 2.4. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart, and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. And then he mentions it again in Second Corinthians 7, verse 8. For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while. So this lost severe letter is what it's usually called. The severe letter was probably written after Paul's second visit to Corinth, during his second visit to Macedonia, but before he returns to Ephesus. Something happened during that second brief visit to Corinth, which didn't go well. We call it the sorrowful visit, and you'll see why in our passage today. It made Paul write the severe letter, the one we don't have, and made Paul change his travel plans, which is going to be a big issue in the passage we're looking at today. And that brings us to the letter we know as 2 Corinthians. Chronologically, it's the fourth letter that Paul wrote to Corinth, but only the second that survives. Instead of returning to Corinth, Paul set Titus to Corinth with the severe letter. When Titus rejoined Paul in Macedonia, Paul rejoiced at the news that Titus brought from Corinth, and he writes this letter in response, and we see that in 2 Corinthians 7 verses 5 through 7. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. But God who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoice still more. So Paul writes the second letter to the Corinthians, what we call a second letter, but it's actually the fourth chronologically, during his third visit to Macedonia. And as we go through the letter, we will see that knowing all this background is essential to understanding the letter. Paul is defending himself in this letter. Knowing the chain of events that led up to it explains some of that defense. Knowing the difficult relationship he had with the Corinthian church helps us understand why he needs to defend himself and also to understand his defense. If all this seems a little confusing, don't worry as we go through the passage today. I think it will become clear. We're going to pick up the story in verse 12, and remember, this is one of those sections where Paul uses the plural pronoun we to mean I, Paul. And he starts by expressing his confidence that when he was with them, he acted with complete integrity. This is 2 Corinthians 1 12. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so toward you. And again, he's saying, My boast is this, I am confident that I behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity toward you. As I mentioned last week, when someone insists that their conscience is clear, they are probably defending themselves against a charge of wrongdoing, and that is exactly Paul's situation here. Some in the Corinthian church have rejected him. They don't believe he has any pastoral concern for them. They're accusing him of acting hypocritically, and he insists that his conscience is clear. He has always been straightforward and sincere with them. Let's bring in verses thirteen and fourteen. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so toward you. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand, and I hope you will fully understand, just as you did partially understand us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you. Okay, this sounds rather complicated, this phrase we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand. It sounds unnecessary. It sounds like he's saying, I'm not writing anything to you but what I wrote, but there's more going on here. Paul is reassuring the Corinthians that he's not hiding anything from them. He's not speaking in coded language, he's not saying one thing while meaning something else. What he writes is exactly what he means. He's being open and straightforward and sincere, and he hopes that as the Corinthians continue to grow in understanding, they will come to see his ministry for what it truly is, faithful and genuine. Right now, some of them mistrust him and misunderstand him. Some of them only partially understand him, some have rejected him, but he's hopeful that over time all of them will come to fully trust him. That way, when Jesus returns, all of them will be able to look back with joy and be proud of the role that he played in their lives just as he is proud of their response to the gospel. He is confident that he has been a faithful minister to them, and he hopes that they come to see that. Then he goes on in fifteen and sixteen, and in this confidence I intended at first to come to you that you might twice receive a blessing, that is to pass your way into Macedonia and again from Macedonia to come to you and by you be helped on my journey to Judea. This is where our background information about Paul's visits and lost letters starts to come in handy. Paul says he made his original plans with the understanding that he had a good relationship with the Corinthians. In this confidence, in the confidence that there were good relations between us, I said I would come and visit you. That's what he's saying in 15. Now at this point, Paul lives in Ephesus, which is across the Aegean Sea from Corinth. If you're in Ephesus and you want to go to Corinth, there are two ways to get there. You can get in a boat and go straight across the Aegean Sea, or you can take the land route, go around the Aegean Sea, and come to Corinth through Macedonia. Thinking that all was well with them, Paul was confident that if he visited them it would be a blessing and he wanted to maximize his time with them, so his original plan was to cross from Ephesus to Corinth by boat, spend some time with them, go north to Macedonia, and then return south to Corinth before heading to Jerusalem. That's what he's referring to when he says that you might twice receive a blessing. He'd originally planned to visit them twice, once on his way into Macedonia and again on his return from Macedonia before traveling to Judea. His intention was that these visits would bring a twice received blessing or a double grace, meaning the Corinthians would benefit from his teaching and his presence on both occasions. However, that's not what he ended up doing. After he communicated these plans, their relationship changed. Paul made the sorrowful visit, the one that's not recorded in Acts, and that visit didn't go well, and now their relationship is troubled. And he says now in 17 and 18, was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes, and no no at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. When Paul didn't visit Corinth like he said he was going to, the Corinthians concluded, well, he must not take them very seriously. He must not really care about him. They accuse him of vacillating. They accuse him of saying, Yes, I'll come, but really meaning no, I won't come, and they accuse him of not keeping his word. They think, well, Paul must not think we're all that important because he changed his mind and didn't bother to come. They accuse him of vacillating because if he was seriously committed to them, he would make sure that he came when he said he was. And they think his word can't be trusted, his word is yes and no, he promises them yes, but it turns out no. Now, as we'll see in a minute, Paul explains why he didn't come to visit them as planned. He tells us why he believes that he was right to change his plans, but that's not the first thing he says to them. The first thing he says is, you're wrong to think that I didn't come because I was vacillating or unconcerned. I was not acting out of selfish human motives. I didn't casually say, yes, I will visit only to arbitrarily decide no, I won't. That's not what he did. He sees his actions as entirely consistent with his faithful ministry to the gospel. To reinforce his trustworthiness, he appeals to God's faithfulness. As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. I think he's assuring them that his word is reliable, and that's important because if his word isn't reliable, how can they trust him when he explains the gospel? And he's saying, My word is reliable, the gospel is reliable, and he's making a kind of oath or vow, just as God is dependable, so is Paul's word. He sincerely communicated what he planned to do based on his understanding at the time, but then his understanding changed, and therefore his plans changed. Now before explaining why he didn't come, Paul reminds them that he has faithfully proclaimed the gospel to them, and the gospel is trustworthy, and they have evidence of that. First, in nineteen and twenty one, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Salvanus, Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. Paul basically says his ministry results from the faithfulness of God. God called him to preach a true message, and God has faithfully ensured that Paul is a trustworthy servant and minister of the gospel. Basically, he's saying, the way I conducted myself toward you, the decisions I've made, including my changing my plans and not coming, that is all part of the faithful exercise of my ministry. I have faithfully fulfilled this ministry to you. He kind of plays with this language of yes and no. They're accusing Paul of saying, yes, I'll come, and then no, I won't. And Paul says, My word is not yes and no. This Jesus I preach is not yes and no. In fact, Jesus is the one who is bringing about the fulfillment of all God's promises. God has promised many things, and Jesus is the one who makes all those promises yes. Jesus is the one who ensures that all God's promises will be yes and that they will turn out exactly the way God promised. He not only brings God's promises to fruition, he makes them yes. That's the kind of plane on the language. Jesus is the one who is responsible for Paul's contribution as a minister of the gospel. He made it so Paul could provide the amen to the glorious work of God. Jesus made it so they could continue his work after the ascension. And in that sense, Paul's ministry to Corinth was like adding an Amen to the gospel. Next, Paul adds that the Spirit is a pledge of this faithful ministry. He's in the middle of talking about the faithful and sure promises of the gospel, that he has faithfully proclaimed the gospel to them. The gospel is reliable, and it will come to pass. And he finishes up this idea of The certainty of it all by saying we know it's certain because of the Holy Spirit. Look at 21 and 22. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. And remember, I still think he's talking about himself as a minister of the gospel. He says, God establishes us with you in Christ, and that is something that is true of all believers. God establishes all believers in Christ, and these faithful promises, all of these yeses that will not turn into no's are dependent upon the work of the Spirit in our hearts. And I think that is true of all believers, but what he's saying is you can have confidence in me, Paul, because it is God who established me with you in Christ. It is God who anointed me and chose me to be a minister of the gospel. Now, again, it's true that God establishes all of us in Christ and gives us all his spirit, but I think in the context, Paul is still appealing to them to believe his ministry is sincere and credible. He says the Spirit is like a pledge, a down payment on the glories to come. It is the work of the Spirit in our hearts that ensures for us personally that the yes will turn out to be yes. That is true in Paul's life, that's true of the Corinthians, and in every believer's life. This is what God is doing. So the promises are sure and certain. Now, by highlighting that God is the source of their mutual faith, Paul hopes to counter any doubts they have about his ministry. I think he's highlighting: look, God established me, God anointed me, God sealed me with the Spirit, God gave you the Spirit and established and anointed and sealed you to reassure them that their identity in Christ is secure. His role as a minister of the gospel is credible, and they can trust God that God is using all of this for their ultimate good. When Paul changed his travel plans, that caused some of them to question his commitment to them, and he is countering that doubt by focusing on God's unchanging commitment to them. Just as Christ fulfills God's promises, the Spirit serves as tangible assurance that these promises will be fully realized, and this should give the Corinthians confidence that their faith rests on God's action. It doesn't rest on Paul's travel plans, it doesn't rest on Paul's commitment to them. Even if it was true that he was kind of flaky and unreliable, they can have confidence in God. But Paul was not flaky and unreliable. God's faithfulness should give them confidence that Paul's ministry is reliable because it reflects God's faithful work. They have firsthand evidence that God is working among them because they have the spirit, and the spirit at work in their lives results from the fact that Paul, as a faithful follower of Jesus, came to them and explained the gospel to them. So they can have confidence that Paul preached the real true gospel because God has given them his spirit and sealed them with it. Now, having clarified all that, Paul finally explains why he didn't come. This is one twenty three and twenty-four. But I call God to witness against me. It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. So Paul chose not to visit them again as planned, because his relationship with them had deteriorated. He went on that sorrowful visit, something happened, we don't know what, it didn't go well, things in the relationship became difficult, and he decided that if he kept his original plans, his visit would be painful for everyone, and he decided to spare them. So after writing 1 Corinthians, where he announced his travel plans, he visited them in a visit which is not recorded in Acts. That didn't go well. Then Timothy visited Corinth and brought back news that Paul believed he needed to deal with swiftly. Even though he said in 1 Corinthians 16 that he planned to visit them via the land route, he took the direct route across the sea, stayed briefly in that sorrowful visit that didn't go well. He went on to Macedonia. Whatever went wrong concerned him enough that he decided it was not a good idea to go back to Corinth, so he returned to Ephesus by the land route and wrote what we call the severe letter instead. Titus takes that letter to Corinth, and then he returns to Paul with news of how the Corinthians responded to that severe letter, and now Paul is writing the letter we're studying in response to all of that. So Paul explains that he stayed away because he wanted to spare them another painful visit, but he clarifies not to lord it over you. It might sound as if he's judging them or bossing them around. Maybe something in the severe letter, whatever he said, sounded judgmental or lording it over them. Whatever he said on that painful visit might sound like maybe he was trying to exert his authority in some inappropriate way. So he clarifies if I do confront you, it is for your ultimate joy. He would only confront them for their benefit. He's not lording it over them as if somehow he were a supreme dictator. He is a servant of Christ, he's a worker, he's working on their behalf, and if he needs to rebuke them, he is rebuking them only to foster and develop their faith, which should result in their joy. Remember, faith is what determines whether we stand or fall. To have Paul the apostle encourage and foster your faith should result in something joyful. So he clarifies look, I'm not rebuking you because I'm on a power trip. If I need to rebuke you, it's only because I want you to arrive at the joy of genuine faith and eternal life. Now going on into chapter two, we'll look at the first four verses. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. So in these verses we learn several things about what happened between Paul and the Corinthians. We learn things here we would not know if we read only the book of Acts. Paul tells us about this painful visit that we've been talking about. Again, just to review the timeline. When Paul first visited Corinth, he stayed over a year. After he left, he wrote 1 Corinthians. Later, when he was in Ephesus, he heard the situation in Corinth was getting worse. So he sails across the sea to visit them and see what he could do if he could help. But it turned out that visit didn't help. It was painful or sorrowful. Because of that sorrowful visit, the one he's just mentioned, he decided to write them the severe letter instead of visiting again. He says he wrote this letter with much affliction and anguish and tears, and he really just wanted them to know how much he appreciated them and loved them. And he says this letter had the potential of making them sorrowful. And in fact, we'll read later in 2 Corinthians that it did make them sorrowful. But that letter did not survive. We don't have access to it anymore, so we don't know what all it said. Paul is using this language of sorrow and joy to explain why he wrote them instead of visiting them. When the Corinthians respond positively to Paul's gospel, it gives him great joy. When they respond positively to the gospel, it brings him joy and satisfaction because they have taken his teaching to heart, and in a way that joy is his reward for all the suffering he goes through as an apostle. But right now there's conflict between Paul and some in the Corinthian church. So he faces this question: would it be better to visit or would it be better to write? If he visits, he'll probably need to speak sternly to them, he'll probably need to rebuke them, and that could make for another painful visit that would make everybody sorrowful and make the situation worse. So Paul decides not to visit. He decides to spare them the chance of another painful visit and to spare himself the pain of seeing their negative response. And he thinks, you know, if I write him a letter, that'll probably work out better. It will be less volatile than confronting them in person. I can think carefully about what to say and how to say it. In that way, a letter might avoid a big confrontation or an angry meeting. And we will learn later that response to that letter was generally positive, so Paul was probably right. He says he wrote with confidence that his joy would become their joy, that ultimately the conflict between them would be resolved and they would share his joy in the gospel. And he hopes that by writing they can agree to rejoice in the gospel, where he was afraid if he went to them personally, there would be some kind of confrontation that would hurt them both. So his goal in writing was to diffuse the fireworks that might happen if he came in person. He knew the letter might make them sad, but his main goal was to communicate to them how much he cared about them and how much he loved them. And you'll notice at least in that regard it wasn't entirely successful because they're charging him with not caring about them because he didn't come. Now let me close with some thoughts about what we saw in this passage. We see a lot about Paul's relationship to the church in Corinth, and it gives us some background that we need to understand the rest of the letter. We learn a lot about the timeline from this section of Corinthians, and that's always helpful. But I was struck by two things in this section. The first one is the elegant simplicity of Paul's argument. Some of the Corinthians doubt that Paul is an apostle at all. They think he's been hypocritical toward them because he changed his plans, and so he's not to be trusted. And Paul's argument is basically this. He says, Examine yourself. You can see the Spirit of God at work in your life, right? Well God only gives the Spirit to his children. You see the changes the Spirit is making in you, so you must be one of God's children. Well, how did you get to be one of God's children? I Paul taught you the gospel. If I were a false teacher, I would have taught you a false gospel, and you would not have the spirit of God. But you do have the spirit of God, so you must believe the true gospel, and I, Paul, taught you that gospel, so I must be a true and authentic servant of God. You may be upset by my apparent vacillation and my change of plans, but think about the situation from another perspective. My change of plans does not nullify the fact that I taught the true gospel, and that true gospel resulted in God giving you his spirit as a seal and a pledge. I think that's genius. I mean, how do you refute that? What are they going to say? No, we don't have the spirit? Ultimately, he's bringing all their confidence and trust back to God. And he's saying, You have your doubts about me, Paul. Well, fine. But look, you can have utter confidence in what God is doing in your lives, even if you don't like the fact that he used me to do it, because you can see the spirit changing you. Even if he doesn't win them over and they don't change their view of Paul, he's bringing their confidence back to God and the work he's doing in their lives. Second, I'm struck by Paul's statement that the promises of God are yes in Jesus. The Bible is filled with the promises God has made. And God sent Jesus to bring those promises about. How do we know God will keep his promises? Because God didn't just speak the promises, he acted on them. He sent Jesus to fulfill them. He sent Jesus to teach us the truth, to die for our sins, and to raise us up on the last day. And we can see those promises already in motion. We can have confidence that God will bring the fulfillment of everything He's promised because the process has already started in Jesus. Jesus is the guarantee that God means what he says, he taught the truth, he bore our sins, he rose from the grave and now reigns in glory. Every step of his life proves that God is serious about keeping his word. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are evidence that God is already at work bringing his promises to pass. And what's going to ensure that we as believers will make it to that last day to stand with Jesus? How do we know that we personally have what it takes to get to the last day? Well, just like the Corinthians, God has given us a down payment. He's given us a pledge that he will fulfill the rest of his promises to us as believers. He's given us the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and see us through to the end. And as we see the Holy Spirit at work, as we see ourselves changing and as we see ourselves turning to God and seeking God more, we have tangible evidence that we belong to Him. And those promises will be yes. The Holy Spirit is the personal guarantee, the pledge that God will complete the work he began in us. He's not just saving us in theory, he's walking with us now day by day, strengthening our faith and transforming our hearts. That's why Paul insists his message is not yes and no. He's not saying, well, maybe God will come through, maybe God won't. He's saying no. In Jesus, the answer is a resounding yes. Every promise God has made finds its fulfillment in him, and we see the guarantee of that in the Spirit, and that is something we can trust. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. The blog version of this podcast is on wednesdayintheword.com slash 2 Corinthians 2. You can hear all the episodes in this series on my website and find many more series on wednesdayintheword.com. There's no charge, no spam, and no ads. It's all free to help you improve your study skills and your understanding of scripture. I have one request: if you've been blessed by this podcast, please follow the podcast and leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coast. You can find Reggie's wonderful music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.